Well, it’s a challenge. The ‘creative’ part is sometimes debatable.
-
Creative Challenge
Creative Challenge: February Update
It’s time to check-in with our Creative Challenge progress!
Continue Reading
-
Goal-Setting
Admin: Schedule Updates, etc.
If you haven’t taken a look at Creative Challenge: 52 Stories in 2019 yet, please do! I’ll be posting check-ins on the first Monday of every month. There will be a few changes here, for your convenience and to accommodate real-life developments: You should now be able to comment. I overlooked comment settings when I
Continue Reading
-
Creative Challenge
Creative Challenge: 52 in 2019!
If you’re a writer like me, you like to take on challenges and overcome them. Just look at #nanowrimo, am I right? (I fell on my face for two weeks after that one, but YMMV.) Well, here’s a creative challenge that doesn’t stuff it all into one month: let’s write one story per week in
Continue Reading
-
Writing Process
Revision: Mining Old Stories to Make New Ones
Revision is my arch-nemesis, and also essential to achieving professional quality–apparently. Fine, fine. It’s true. None of my first drafts are publishable. Some come close to being good, and possess raw energy that the following drafts lack, but that worked in my favor much more when writing fan fiction than it does for original. And,
Continue Reading
-
Writing Process
How to Use Scrivener for Worldbuilding
How to use Scrivener for worldbuilding–and a lot of other things, incidentally–is the first in a line of what I’ll call “The Basics.” Generally, what I’m interested in writing about is a bit farther down the line of writing craft, but if somebody new to writing visits my blog, I want to have articles to
Continue Reading
-
Goal-Setting
December (Writing) Goal Post
Meeting my own writing goals has always been difficult. Deadlines are easy when somebody else is driving me–my job, my grades, my reputation–but difficult to respect when those forces are absent, in my experience. Fear of consequences is an effective motivator. That’s where public accountability enters the equation. By stating my goals out loud, I
Continue Reading
-
National Novel Writing Month
Nanowrimo for the Anxious: Missing a Day
Have you missed any writing days yet? The frenetic pace of Nanowrimo almost begs us to trip up. I always do, eventually. I’ve missed two days, so far: one thanks to bad planning, and the other because of an emergency vet visit. Our boy is fine, but wow, did that kill my motivation to write.
Continue Reading
-
National Novel Writing Month
Nanowrimo for the Anxious: Shut That Inner Critic Down
Like everything related to writing, shutting your inner critic down sounds easier than it is. However, if you can’t shut that asshole down, you can at least sharpen your tools for cussing it out effectively. Or, y’know, just ignoring the damn thing. My critic repeats everybody who told me I’m worthless. It parrots the attitude
Continue Reading
-
National Novel Writing Month
Nanowrimo for the Anxious: 5 Ways to Write Around Family
There must be a sizeable chunk of text devoted to writing around family interference in No Plot? No Problem!–and if not, you’ll find it in other books. Also on other blogs, like posts about maintaining creative routines during the holidays over at The Writing Life. I really like her suggestions, because they emphasize flexibility and address
Continue Reading